Marlon Wayans finds his way with comedy

A member of the Wayans comedy family, which includes Keenen Ivory and Damon, Marlon not only stars in “A Haunted House 2,” the sequel to the 2013 hit, he co-produced and co-wrote it.

By Bob TremblayMetroWest Daily News

Anyone who has seen Marlon Wayans in the “Scary Movie” films knows he’s a funny guy. But fans of his comic films, like “A Haunted House 2,” coming out this Friday, might be surprised to discover he has dramatic acting chops, too. As anyone who has seen “Requiem for a Dream” knows. In “Dream,” he plays a drug addict caught in a living nightmare. About the only thing it has in common with “A Haunted House 2” is that they’re both films.

A member of the Wayans comedy family, which includes Keenen Ivory and Damon, Marlon not only stars in “A Haunted House 2,” the sequel to the 2013 hit, he co-produced and co-wrote it.

Directed by Michael Tiddes, who also directed the original, the film follows Malcolm Johnson (Wayans) in the aftermath of the death of his possessed girlfriend in a car crash. He has moved into a new house with his girlfriend Megan (Jaime Pressly) and her two children, Becky (Ashley Rickards) and Wyatt (Steele Stebbins). The house has paranormal issues, however, and Malcolm has to deal with them while trying keep his new family together. Good luck, Mal.

During a lengthy question-and-answer session following a screening of the film in Boston, Wayans stressed that the film is not a parody, but a horror comedy with elements of parody. “Paranormal Activity” and “The Conjuring” are just two of the films that get spoofed here.

The movie’s signature scene, at least from a perversity perspective, has Malcolm engaging in virtually every sex act known to man and woman with a doll. “My sister said, ‘You are sick.’ I said, ‘Y’all shouldn’t have dropped me so much when I was a baby,” Wayans quipped at the Q&A. He added later, “The doll was really good on the casting couch.”

During an interview a few days after the screening at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, Wayans said the decision to make a sequel “actually came from a genuine place. We found a story that would be a perfect progression for Malcolm where he would explore a new world by having an interracial relationship and a Latino next-door neighbor. I think it puts Malcolm in a position to provide an African-American point of view of what the hell is going on.”

Wayans says the studio did want a sequel right away. “But I didn’t want to do it because of the money,” he says. “I’ve been rushed before. When we did ‘Scary Movie 2,’ a lot of people loved it, but me and brothers always say, ‘It wasn’t our best work.’ We felt that if we just had another six months to write it, it would have been what we really wanted it to be, but instead it was more of a confection than a movie.

“With ‘Haunted House 2,’ I was going to pass on the whole thing if we couldn’t find something that we felt excited about. This just made us laugh.”

The 41-year-old Wayans penned the script with Rick Alvarez, who also co-produced the film. The two, who have known each other for 14 years, also co-wrote the original. Teamwork forms the basis of their writing relationship.

“It’s kind of like watching Dwyane Wade and LeBron James,” says Wayans, referring to the two basketball stars of the Miami Heat. “Who’s the point guard? Who’s the shooting guard? Who’s the leading scorer? Who’s doing the alley-oop to who now? You take turns going back and forth. It’s two guys who love what they do. We take turns scoring.

“In this process, we map out the movie together. We talk about every scene. We create the characters together. We pretty much put together the lay of the land and we just start writing the dialogue. I’ll write scene one, he’ll write scene two, and then we’ll switch, or write scenes together. It changes up, which is good. We share similar points of view.

“I love getting something Rick wrote because over the years, he’s always been a really solid writer, but his humor has gone to really sick, fun places so it’s always good now when I read his scripts I get those little goodies in there that I wasn’t expecting that make me laugh.”

Not that the script is written in stone. “The script serves as a blueprint,” says Wayans. “We let the cast improvise. If it’s it funny, we keep it.”

As for the casting, Wayans says, “I like to write with cast members in my head. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t… This time I got lucky. The people I wanted, the people I wrote for, did the movie.” These people include Cedric the Entertainer and Gabriel Iglesias. “I like taking guys known for one thing and flipping that, giving them a little edge,” says Wayans. “Let them enter an R-rated world and have some fun. For example, you never hear Gabriel curse.” Iglesias is nicknamed Fluffy.

Regarding “Requiem for a Dream,” let’s just says Wayans wasn’t director Darren Aronofsky’s first choice. “That was the last thing on his mind,” says Wayans. “I know he was like, ‘Why is this guy coming in to audition? I don’t want somebody from the WB in my movie.’“

But Wayans said he believed in the film. He was also no stranger to drama, having attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. “I kept auditioning. I auditioned like six times,” says Wayans. “And I wound up winning him over and getting the part. It was a great experience and people ask me, ‘Why don’t you do more drama?’ “But I didn’t receive any dramatic scripts after that. I love drama, but think about it. If there’s a drama, it going to go to Jamie (Foxx), Denzel (Washington) or Will (Smith). I haven’t seen any of those scripts. For ‘12 Years A Slave,’ Chiwetel (Ejiofor) was already cast in it and I didn’t feel like being Slave No. 14. In the meantime, instead of waiting for Hollywood to cast me, I did my comedies, and had fun doing that.”

Wayans said he was set to play Richard Pryor in a biopic of the late comic great, but the movie deal fell through. Lee Daniels, the director of “The Butler,” is now in talks to direct, and Wayans isn’t sure if he’ll still get the part. “He has every right to cast who he feel would do the best justice for the role,” says Wayans. “Of course, I would love to do it, but I respect whatever decision anybody makes. I just want it to get done and get done the right way because Richard Pryor is my hero.

“Whoever gets cast, if it’s me or somebody else, I’ll download all the information I’ve learned about Pryor to that person because I want it to be done right, I’ve read his book four times. I’ve read seven books on Pryor. I’ve studied his stand-up. I started doing stand-up three years ago just in case I got the role. I started stand-up wanting to play a great and I love it so much that now I want to be a great. I’m thankful to Pryor either way it goes, to have the hyphenate ‘comedian’ in my title now means a lot of me.”